4.28 Europe: a.d. 1401 to 1500  (Page 10/16)

France

The Hundred Years War continued on into this century. Henry V of England, joined by the ambitious Duke of Burgundy, invaded France in 1415, hoping to seize the French throne. He failed in this but be did manage to take a portion of the country, including Paris, for a time, following the battle of Agincourt, when the English, with 6,000 archers, 1,000 men-at-arms and a few thousand foot soldiers defeated 25,000 French, still wearing heavy armor. France was actually in ruins, with poverty, amorality, filth, cruelty, treachery and corruption endemic. This deterioration had been going on since the last half of the preceding century. In this recession, market buildings fell into ruins and even the great Halles market place in Paris declined. (Ref. 292 ) Nevertheless, the French King Charles VII set up a new government south of the Loire and after the stimulation of the epic of Joan D'Arc (originally Jeanne Darc), in 1429, the tide turned. Joan, a religious mystic, who led the defeated French troops, was burned at the stake by the British as a witch, but to Catholic France she was a guiding light. In 1435 the Duke of Burgundy switched sides, transferring his support to France and with the help of cannon the expulsion of the English soon followed. First Normandy was reconquered (1440), then Gascony and some adjacent areas in the 1440s, Burgundy in 1477, Anjou in 1481 and Brittany in 1491. It was the fall of Bordeaux in 1453 that, in effect, ended the Hundred Years war.

Thus the kingdom of France emerged on the European map between 1450 and 1490, centralized and capable of sustaining a professional standing army of about 25,000 men constantly, with about 50,000 more reserves available if needed. In addition- they had heavy artillery pieces which could demolish castle walls in a matter of hours, thanks to a century of rapid improvements in cannon design and manufacture. In this rebuilding Charles VII was helped immeasurably by the financier, Jacques Coeur, one of the copper kings. It should be noted, however, that in 1479 Louis XI disbanded his French infantry forces and made a contract with Swiss mercenary pikemen. The Swiss propped up the aristocratic-bureaucratic regime for the next 300 years. (Ref. 137 , 8 , 260 )

NOTE: Insert Map 51. England and France in 1429

NOTE: Insert Map France in A.D. 1453

Under the strange King Louis XI in the last of the century, the government of France became the most powerful in Latin Christendom but the people themselves became poorer. It was Louis' son, Charles VIII, who invaded Italy and held a part of it for a short period. Lyons became the most famous "fair" center, located on the great trade route through the Rhone Valley and it prospered accordingly, developing its own stock exchange in 1462. Toulouse followed with one in 1469. (Ref. 292 )

In the south of France, as in Spain, tens of thousands of sheep were moved annually from the mountains of Provence to winter pasture at Arles. Also in Provence, communal herds of pigs were driven across country to fatten on the acorns of Vauduse and Albion.